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Kurt Wagner (Earth-616)
__TOC__ Real Name: Kurt Wagner Nicknames: Bamf, Great Boggie, Elf, Fuzzy Elf Former Aliases: Gainsborough Other Current Aliases: None known Status Occupation: Adventurer, teacher; former priest Legal Status: Citizen of Germany with a criminal record in the United States, later overturned by the courts; still wanted internationally as an outlaw Identity: Secret Marital Status: Single Group Affiliation: X-Men; formerly Excalibur, N-Men Base of Operations: Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York; formerly Muir Island, Scotland; Braddock Lighthouse, England Origin Origin: Nightcrawler is a mutant, born with with his amazing abilities that developed during puberty. Place of Birth: Castle of Baron Christian Wagner, Bavaria, Germany Known Relatives: Azazel (father), Count Eric Wagner (supposed father, deceased),Raven Darkholme (aka Mystique, mother), Margali Szardos (foster mother), Jimaine Szardos (aka Amanda Sefton, Daytripper, Magik, foster sister), Stefan Szardos (foster brother, deceased), Graydon Creed (half-brother, deceased), Nils Styger (aka Abyss, half-brother), Kiwi Black (half-brother) First Appearance: Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) History Kurt Wagner was born with unusual physical characteristics, but his power of self-teleportation did not emerge until puberty. Margali Szardos, a sorceress and gypsy queen, found Wagner an hour after his birth, in a small roadside shelter in the Bavarian Alps. She found his father, Eric Wagner, dead of a heart attack on the road outside. Margali is said to have found Wagner's mother lying next to the baby and dying, but this assertion has been called into question, and not even Kurt Wagner knows the truth. Margali took the baby to the small Bavarian circus where she worked as a fortuneteller as a "cover" for her activities as a sorceress. Wagner was never legally adopted by anyone, but was raised by all the members of the circus, who had no prejudices against "freaks." Margali acted as Wagner's unofficial foster mother. Wagner grew up happily in the circus, and his two closest friends were Margali's natural children Stefan and Jimaine. Long before his teleportation power emerged, Wagner had tremendous natural agility, and by his adolescence he had become the circus's star acrobat and aerial artist. Circus audiences assumed that he was a normal-looking human being wearing a demon-like costume. Years later, the Texas millionaire Arnos Jardine, who ran a large circus based in Florida, heard of the circus Wagner worked for and bought it. Jardine intended to move its best acts into his American circus. However, he demanded that Wagner be placed in the circus's freak show. Appalled, Wagner quit and made his way towards Winzeldorf, Germany, where Stefan was. He discovered that Stefan had gone mad and had brutally slain several children. Two nights after leaving the circus, Wagner found Stefan and fought him, hoping to stop his rampage. In the course of the struggle, Wagner unintentionally broke Stefan's neck. Then the villagers of Winzeldorf, who assumed him to be a demon who was responsible for the child killings, discovered Wagner. They were about to kill him when they were all psionically paralyzed by Professor Charles Xavier, who had come to recruit Wagner into the X-Men. Wagner agreed to join the group, but before they left for America, he and Xavier went to the Bavarian circus so that Wagner could explain to Margali about Stefan's death.right|frame However, Margali was not there. She held Wagner responsible for murdering Stefan, but years later, she learned the truth and she and Wagner were reconciled. Wagner was also happily reunited with Jimaine, who now lives in the United States under the name of Amanda Sefton. Known as Nightcrawler, Wagner became a member of the X-Men. Nightcrawler remained with the X-Men for years. Eventually, after being beaten into a coma following the massacre of the Morlocks by the Marauders, he became a founding member of the British-based team Excalibur and eventually became team leader. Following the team disbanding, Kurt returned to the United States along with Shadowcat and Colossus to rejoin the X-Men. Nightcrawler ended up taking a few leaves of absence from the team, one to enroll in a seminary and become a priest and the other to mourn for Colossus. Kurt returned to the team and eventually gave up on the priesthood. Wagner later learned that his mother is the mutant known as Mystique. Raven claimed that throwing Kurt would give both of them a chance to survive. The demonic mutant Azazel has also claimed to be Wagner's true father, spawning a number of mutants with dimensional powers to help him in his mad quest. It is unclear if Kurt or any of the others believed Azazel's claim. Currently, Kurt is a part of Storm's X-Men squad. When not on missions, he teaches Drama to students of the reopened Xavier Institute. Characteristics Height: 5' 6" Weight: 161 lbs (73 kg) Eyes: Shining Yellow Hair: Indigo Skin: His body is almost entirely covered with a fine indigo-colored fur. Unusual Features: Nightcrawler has only 3 fingers (including an opposable thumb) on each hand, and only 2 toes, each longer than an ordinary human's, on each foot. Nightcrawler has a prehensile tail about 3 1/2 feet long, which can carry his own weight. Nightcrawler has pointed ears and pronounced fang-like canine teeth. His spine is more flexible than an ordinary human being's, allowing him to spend much of his time in a semi-crouching position without damaging his posture and enables him to perform contortionist-like feats. Powers Known Powers: Nightcrawler is a mutant with the ability of Teleportation. Teleportation: He teleports by displacing himself into the Brimstone Dimension, travelling through it, and then returning to his own dimension at a certain distance from his point of departure. He consciously determines his point of return. The entire process occurs so quickly that Nightcrawler is unaware of being in the brimstone dimension at all. Nightcrawler guides himself through the brimstone dimension by an unconscious, natural direction-finding sense. Although Nightcrawler controls his teleportational ability with his conscious mind, his power to teleport is not psionic. Rather it is the result of an unknown biochemical/biophysical reaction which he triggers mentally. When he disappears in teleporting, Nightcrawler leaves behind smoke with a stench reminiscent of burning brimstone. This is a small portion of the atmosphere of the brimstone dimension that escapes while the aperture is open. His teleportation is invariably accompanied by the muffled sound of imploding air rushing to fill the vacuum left where Nightcrawler's body was. The longer the distance over which Nightcrawler teleports himself, the harder and more exhausting it is for him to make the teleportational "jump." It is easier for him to teleport between north and south (along Earth's magnetic field lines) than it is for him to teleport between east and west (against the magnetic lines). Under optimal conditions, teleporting only himself and his costume, Nightcrawler can displace himself a distance of about 2 miles east-to-west, and up to 3 miles north-to-south. Making a vertical teleportation upwards is difficult and dangerous. Nightcrawler has made a vertical teleportational "jump" of 2 miles by pushing himself to his physical limits. Nightcrawler's powers automatically displace liquids and gases when he arrives in the course of a teleportation. Nightcrawler's momentum is retained throughout the process of teleportation: he arrives with whatever amount of inertia he left with. For example, if he were falling from a great height, he could not teleport himself towards the ground in order to save himself; he would land with the same velocity that he teleported with. He can subtract this inertia by teleporting short distances upwards (as though taking two steps back for every one forward). The limits to the mass that Nightcrawler can carry with him while teleporting, and the limits to the distance over which he can teleport himself with additional load is unknown. When he transports a passenger over even moderate distances, they both feel weakened and ill, to the point of exhaustion. Teleportation over further distances could be fatal. Through practice, Nightcrawler has increased the mass he can teleport with him. (He once teleported himself and Storm from the center of a small island into the water just off its coast without harming either of them). The upper limits of this capacity are as yet unknown. Nightcrawler can use his powers offensively by grappling with an enemy and telporting him or her in a series of rapid jumps. The strain of these "multiple ports" can exhaust foes without superhuman endurance while Nightcrawler remains strong enough to continue fighting. Subconscious Spatial Awareness: Nightcrawler has a very limited subconscious extrasensory ability that prevents him from teleporting himself so that his feet, for example, would materialize below the surface of the local ground. Because this ability is so limited, however, Nightcrawler will not teleport into any place that he cannot see or has not seen in the past. If Nightcrawler teleported himself into an unfamiliar area, he would run the risk of materializing partially or entirely within a solid object. If too much of his body materialized within a solid object, he would probably be killed. Micro-Suction Discs: Nightcrawler can stick to objects with the surface of his hands and feet. This enables him to scale surfaces. Flexible Bone Structure: Nightcrawler's bone structure allows him great flexibility. He can remain in a crouched position for a long time and perform contortionist type feats without causing any damage to his spine. Camouflage: He has limited abilities to blend into shadows, both as a result of his indigo fur and his connection to light-bending attributes of the dimension through which he teleports. This is also the explanation for why he constantly appears in shadow, even in direct light . Prehensile Tail: allowing him to grab onto objects with relative ease. His tail is strong enough to not only support his body weight but also lift an adult man completely off the ground, and is deft enough to fight with like a sword or blunt object. Infrared Vision: Nightcrawler's always glowing eyes grant him a marked degree of heightened night vision as well. Superhuman Agility: possesses agility enhanced to superhuman levels. Superhuman Reflexes: possesses reflexes enhanced to superhuman levels. Known Abilities: Nightcrawler is an Olympic-class acrobat thanks to his flexible spine that allows him to perform contortionist-like feats and to go long periods in a semi-crouching position without injury. He is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and a master at fencing, which he can even perform with his tail, which is strong enough to support his entire body weight. Strength Level: Nightcrawler possesses above average strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. Animated Series In the X-Men Evolution animated series, Nightcrawler is a teenage student at the Xavier Institute with much the same friendly nature and demeanor as his comic book counterpart, although he does not appear to be religious at thie point in his life. He has a very close friendship with Kitty Pryde that even hints at a possible relationship, although he later ends up dating who is presumed to me a young Amanda Sefton. The show has, like the comics, revealed that Mystique is his birth mother and Rogue his foster sister. When Mystique was turned to stone, he tried to be there for both his mother and Rogue and was torn because of the conflict between the two. He uses a holographic inducer to look human which he uses to go to school, making him appear as a normal teen. He was voiced by Brad Swaile. Miscellaneous Equipment: No known equipment. Transportation: X-Men Blackbird. Weapons: Fencing foils. Notes * No special notes. Related Articles * External Links * References * Marvel Directory * Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #9 (August 1986) * Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2004 ---- Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Living Characters Category:Good Characters Category:Mutant Characters Category:German Category:Bronze Age Category:Secret Identity Category:Single Characters Category:Yellow Eyes Category:Blue Hair Category:Blue Skin Category:X-Men members Category:Excalibur members